Abstract
Purpose: This quality improvement project illustrates that a stand-alone Nurse Practitioner (NP) driven critical care rapid response team at a level one trauma center in South Carolina can decrease failure to rescue events, specifically response times and cardiopulmonary arrest within 24 hours of code rapid response initiation.|Background: Patients actively experiencing distress can advance to cardiopulmonary arrest and suffer acute life-threatening events if the appropriate provider is not present promptly. The AHRQ (2017) reports that rapid response teams have demonstrated significant improvements in clinical outcomes by reducing cardiopulmonary arrest. Moreover, analyses across the United States has noted a major decrease in cardiopulmonary arrest during code situations, when a qualified provider led rapid response team is utilized, and care is initiated promptly (Avis et al., 2016).|Sample/Setting: A total of 223 patients were included in this study; 97 from April – July 2017 and 126 from April – July 2018. The participants were inpatient code rapid response patients on any med-surg or telemetry unit, admitted for unspecified illnesses. The participants were male or female, aged 18 and older. Participants were automatically included in the research study once a code rapid response was initiated and a critical care NP responded.|Methods: This retrospective study involved obtaining analyzing data between the initiation of a NP driven critical care rapid response team in an April – July 2017 cohort and follow-up one year later, April – July 2018 cohort, by the primary researcher.|Results: Between the initiation of the NP driven critical care rapid response team in April – July 2017 and follow-up one year later, April – July 2018, there was a 1 min 30 sec decline in response time and an approximately 8% decrease in cardiopulmonary arrest within twenty-four hours of a code rapid response initiation.|Conclusion: Having a NP driven critical care rapid response team decreases response times and cardiopulmonary arrest within twenty-four hours of code rapid response initiation. Based on this study, it is imperative to utilize a NP driven critical care rapid response team to reduce failure to rescue events and improve patient outcomes.